David Snow

Developed with Robert D. Benford and other collaborators, frame alignment is a theory explaining how social movement organizations actively link their interests to the beliefs of potential recruits. Snow argued that mobilization is only successful when a movement successfully 'frames' its message to resonate with the everyday cultural frames of the public.

Snow categorized frame alignment into four distinct processes: frame bridging, frame amplification, frame extension, and frame transformation. These mechanisms describe exactly how social movements adapt their messaging to attract support from various audiences.

While famous for his work on framing and collective identity, Snow is also a prominent scholar of homelessness and poverty. He conducted extensive ethnographic research on the daily survival strategies of homeless populations in major American cities like Austin, Texas.

David A. Snow has spent much of his distinguished career as a professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine. At UC Irvine, he has been instrumental in building one of the top academic departments for the study of social movements and collective behavior.